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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2052169" data-attributes="member: 1129">Whispers of the Vampire's BladeWhispers of the Vampire’s Blade is the third adventure in the new Eberron series. Written by David Noonan and published by Wizards of the Coast, Whispers is 32 black and white pages and retails for $9.99. Interior covers are used for black and white maps. Because the book is a WoTC product, there is no SRD or OGL license so the full book is utilized.Interior art is handled by Steve Prescott who does a great job brining to life the characters and situations of the book. The maps by Todd Gamble, are readable but a little on the simple side, which is a shame when we have other cartographers liked Ed from SkeletonKey Games who’ve worked for many third party companies, that could’ve handled this. Editing is fair as far as nothing leaping from the page.The book starts off with some adventure background and synopsis, as well as a quick rundown on how to run an event-based adventure. Unlike a site-based adventure, this one takes for granted that the big fights will take more resources, as the party will have more time to supply and replenish themselves outside of each combat. It’s a school of thought that has some fans and I use it myself to tighten the sense of drama in each combat but it takes a skilled GM as pushing the characters the wrong way in just the slightest could result in party deaths that would’ve been avoided by using less creatures or less powerful opposition.The strange thing about this adventure is that it doesn’t directly tie into Shadows of the Last War. Instead, the players are approached about an employment opportunity but to gain the job, they have to earn the employer’s respect by subduing a dire ape. After that, they’re hired on to hunt down a former spy master of the Dark Lanters named Lucan whose no longer quite human and has made off with an ancient item from the previous war, the Soul Blade. Lucan is a vampire in thrall to another whose lair he uncovered in the course of his duties.Now the rest of the adventure reads like a good action movie. The players have lots of opportunities to chase Lucan and his sister down, to engage in skyship combat, to hunt for their prey in a masked ball, and fight against old foes onboard the rail before coming to the end of the run in a ruined ziggurat. There’s a difference between a movie and a D&D game though. Lucan in essence, is scripted to get away for every encounter that he has with the players. Say that the players catch up to Lucan’s coach in the beginning of the game.  Well, he’ll duck into the forest.In other situations, the players are set up to fail in little ways. For example, during the masquerade, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to sneak any weapons larger than say, a dagger into the ball without magic or high ranks in sleight of hand. Lucan on the other hand, doesn’t have that problem thanks to a glove of storing. Sure, the player’s might have a similar item, but Lucan also has many innate abilities that put him at a distinct advantage and doesn’t care if innocents get hurt. In most games, players aren’t going to be casting rays of flame or burning hands in a room full of people. Heck, even the aftermath notes clearly, “The goal of this encounter is for Lucan to escape.”It’s a railroad fest that can quickly grate on even the most even-tempered player. A person preference of mine is completely ignored here. Including monster stats in the adventure. I don’t know when it became fashionable for companies to refer to the Monster Manual by giving the creature’s name and hit points, but cracking up the Monster Manual and reading it for game statistics is not something I’d rather do while preparing the adventure. I’m also a little old fashioned in that I like text to be read aloud or paraphrased to be boxed as opposed to just set in italic text.A skilled GM can easily weave Lucan’s escapes into the campaign cloth and role play him as the villain that player’s love to hate. But my group and their way of playing wouldn’t put up with the lead around the nose. If you’re going to have a villain like Lucan, you have to have some space separating the chases. Having the characters run after him again and again and again, only to have him make an uncharacteristic last stand, as somehow, he fights off not only the influence of his master, but also the blade, he decides to have a showdown.What’s just as strange is that the tie to the previous adventure are thin. While the characters are looking for Lucan aboard the Lightning Rail, which as stated by the text, they can’t find him until Lucan makes a move, they come under attack from Scimitar, a servant of the Lord of Blades who wants something that the party may have. That's one of the few tie in's to the previous products and entirely disposable. Like I said, it’s a thin strip to connect the adventures.The good news in that is that you can easily run this as a separate adventure and not have any issue with continuity. The bad news is that if you do run it as part of the series, it’s a thin connection.There are some good role-playing opportunities and the GM is once again given a short tour of many of the buttons of Eberron. Players get to sail on an airship, fight on the Lightning Rail, take up arms for the Dark Lanters and fight against the minions of the Lord of Blades. There are several areas that GM’s can fill in with their own adventure seeds and ideas. The players have numerous rest steps along the way not detailed by the adventure and a few ideas for further adventure, such as taking arms against some bandit sahuagin. It’s just not as well executed as it could’ve been.</blockquote>

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